


close enough to purrfect

by perfectlyrose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mutual Pining, Pining Shiro (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 07, Purring Keith (Voltron), Romance, but mostly - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-26 03:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20037391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Keith curls into his side. It’s quiet for a minute or two and then the low rumbling kicks up. It starts out almost inaudible before building to a quiet purr that Shiro can feel vibrating through him.“Didn’t know you could purr,” he says quietly, loathe to disturb the moment.“Me neither,” Keith admits. The purring stops when he talks but starts back up as soon as he’s done vocalizing. He presses a hand to his chest to feel it better. “Alien traits showing up this far into my life is fucking weird.”The day Keith gets out of the hospitalshouldbe a banner day, joyous even, and Shiro certainly starts it out with a smile.





	close enough to purrfect

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Patch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Patch/gifts).

> for Patch who won my 300 follower giveaway on twitter! I hope you like this bit of h/c fluff!
> 
> huge thanks to [Kika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kika988) and [Feather](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Featherstorm77) for the betas!! ♥

The day Keith gets out of the hospital  _ should _ be a banner day, joyous even, and Shiro certainly starts it out with a smile. 

He knocks on the open door of Keith’s hospital room, a stack of clothes and a stuffed hippo he found in the market yesterday in his arms. “You ready to get out of here?” Shiro asks when Keith looks up from the datapad in his lap.

“Beyond ready,” Keith replies instantly. He zeros in on the clothes Shiro brought and holds out his hands. “You here to spring me before they change their mind? Can’t wait to be out of here and out of these hospital clothes.”

Shiro laughs and hands the stack over, watching Keith’s face soften as he sees the hippo. “Do you like it?”

“Of course,” Keith replies, hugging it to his chest for a moment. “I’ll like it more outside of this room.”

“Get changed and we’ll get out of here,” Shiro promises. He turns back towards the door as Keith slips out of the bed to give him some privacy. “I’ll show you your quarters on Atlas. She put all the Paladins together with a common room, kind of like the castle.”

“Are your quarters with ours?” Keith asks. He sounds out of breath and Shiro clenches his fist, fighting the urge to check on him.

“Yeah. Although I’m Atlas’s favorite so I have the biggest quarters.”

“Fitting for the Captain,” Keith shoots back.

His new title, made official by the Garrison in the days since his battlefield promotion, in Keith’s mouth sends a tingle down his spine.

“Okay, I’m good,” Keith says. “Let’s get out of here.”

Shiro turns around and finds Keith dressed in the t-shirt and sweats he’d brought with him, datapad and hippo in his arms. He’s a little paler than he was when Shiro walked in and doesn’t look the steadiest on his feet.

“Sure you’re good?” Shiro asks carefully.

“Yeah,” Keith says quickly. He winces. “I just haven’t spent much time upright, lately.”

“Harder than you remember?” Shiro teases.

“Shut up.”

Shiro mimes zipping his lips closed, which draws a snort from Keith, and leads him out to the desk to sign his discharge papers.

The nurse explains the discharge instructions to both of them and looks Shiro dead in the eye as she orders him to make sure Keith follows them to the letter. He flushes and stutters through an agreement even though they don’t  _ actually _ live together like she obviously thinks. It’s fine.

Keith looks wiped enough that he’s going to need reminders, anyway. Shiro rests a hand at his elbow as they head towards the exit. “Still feeling okay?”

“Didn’t realize I’d lost so much fucking strength in there,” Keith grumbles, leaning into Shiro’s light hold on him. “My legs feel like rubber.”

“You had serious injuries, Keith,” Shiro says softly, not wanting to vocalize the fact that Keith had been inches and minutes from dying. “No one expects you to be back to 100% right away.”

“Everyone else is already out there helping,” Keith protests, frustration seeping into his voice. They step outside and Keith blinks against the bright morning sun.

“And that means you have the time and space to recover properly,” Shiro says. He hesitates a second before wrapping his arm around Keith’s waist to offer better support. It is only half an excuse to tuck Keith in close against him. “They have it covered. We all just want you to heal up. We were all worried about you.”

Keith stops and pivots into Shiro’s chest, turning his hold into a hug that Shiro is more than happy to return. “Didn’t mean to worry you,” he mumbles.

Shiro is positive that the only reason he’s not apologizing is Shiro’s repeated insistence that he doesn’t need to. “I know,” he says, running a hand over Keith’s hair. “Probably helping to even out the ledger with how much I’ve worried you.”

Keith makes a noise of complaint and leans more of his weight against Shiro.

“Are you going to be able to make it to the Atlas?”

“Have to,” Keith replies. “Not going back into the hospital.”

“I can carry you,” Shiro offers.

Keith whines. “I’d never live it down.”

Shiro expected that, though he would gladly carry Keith anywhere if he asked. “Why don’t you call the wolf, then? He can get us to your quarters and you won’t have to talk to anyone on the way.”

Keith is quiet for a moment. “I feel like you’ve just maneuvered me into doing what you want but that sounds good.”

Shiro hides his smile in Keith’s hair. “Call him over and we’ll get you home.”

Keith pulls away and whistles a three note sequence. They barely have to wait two seconds before the wolf is there, nosing in between them, tail wagging frantically.

Shiro laughs. “I think he’s excited to see you out of that hospital room.”

“You and me both, buddy,” Keith says, scratching behind the wolf’s ears. “Take us to the Atlas? Our room?”

Heat sizzles through Shiro at  _ our room _ even though he knows it’s directed at the wolf and not him. He gets a handful of the wolf’s thick fur and the world flashes away.

Shiro blinks as reality melts into being around him. His surroundings are too familiar. “These are my quarters,” he scolds the wolf, “not Keith’s.”

The wolf whines, breaking Shiro’s heart, and then flashes out of sight before he can apologize.

Keith stumbles, having been leaning on his wolf for support. Shiro catches him, holding him upright. “Do you want me to take you to your quarters?”

“Can I just crash on your couch?” Keith asks. “Until my legs decide to let me walk again?”

“You just got out of the hospital,” Shiro says. “I’m not making you sleep on the couch.”

He scoops Keith up in his arms, resolutely ignoring his squawk of surprise and the warmth of his body against Shiro’s, and carries him into the bedroom. He lowers Keith down onto the bed as gently as he can. He knows most of his injuries have healed, but he doesn’t want to jostle anything unnecessarily.

“I can’t take your bed,” Keith protests.

“You can and you will,” Shiro tells him, slipping a thread of command into his voice. “I took today off and I can always take you over to your room when I’m ready to sleep, if you want to leave.”

Keith looks like he’s on the edge of passing out but he still manages a mulish expression, bottom lip pushing out into the hint of a pout.

“Just sleep, Keith,” Shiro tells him. “I’ll go get your meds from the pharmacy.”

“Ugh,” Keith replies, eloquent as ever. “This is stupid.”

“Better here than in the hospital,” Shiro points out. He bends down to slip Keith’s shoes off and then starts fussing with the covers, trying to get them up over Keith.

“Shiro, I can do it,” Keith complains, batting his hands away. He pulls the blankets up and turns on his side, looking so small in Shiro’s big bed.

Shiro swallows hard and balls his fist so he doesn’t reach out to brush Keith’s hair off his forehead. Keith doesn’t want to be hovered over, he knows this. The urge is still there; the worry and panic of the crash and the uncertain recovery still lingers in the back of his throat, metallic and dry.

“I know you can,” he says. “Just trying to be a good host since the wolf made you my guest and I didn’t have time to change the sheets or anything.”

Keith’s face softens and he tugs up the covers an inch more. “It’s fine, Shiro. Thank you.”

“Okay, I’m going to go pick up your drugs,” Shiro says. “You hungry yet?”

Keith shakes his head.

“Okay. There’s probably nothing edible in my fridge anyways,” Shiro admits with a laugh. “I’ll pick up food for later while I’m out.”

“Sounds good.”

Shiro rests a hand on the curve of his shoulder. “You’ll be back up and going before you know it,” he promises.

“Sure,” Keith says, offering up a smile. “Now get out of here so I can sleep like you told me to.”

“Going to get a bottle of water for the nightstand and then I’ll get out of your hair,” Shiro says. He does reach out and brush a bit of hair out of Keith’s face this time, careful not to jar the newly healed cut near his hairline.

Shiro leaves the water for Keith and then slips out of the room, turning the lights out so Keith will be more likely to sleep. He knows the bright lights in the hospital grated on him.

He figures a run to the pharmacy and then the kitchens will take twenty minutes tops. Shiro wants to get back to Keith’s side as soon as possible and try to make the day a little happier than it’s been so far. Keith was  _ so _ excited to get out of the hospital and he deserves more than having to immediately crash alone and still not in his own bed.

He doesn’t anticipate the pharmacist arguing with him about if he’s authorized to pick up Keith’s prescriptions (He is. Keith signed paperwork to that effect but apparently it hasn’t hit the system yet and Shiro’s not willing to call and wake Keith up to clear up the confusion.)

He also doesn’t anticipate the kitchen being a madhouse because something got put in the industrial coolers that doesn’t react well to cold. He ends up doing damage control despite being off duty and leaving the kitchens with a headache and no food.

Shiro checks the time and winces when he realizes he’s been gone for over an hour. 

He shoots off a message to Hunk, begging for something edible for Keith, and sets off at a trot for his quarters. At least Hunk will keep his judgment for Keith being set up in Shiro’s quarters and not his own nonverbal, which is more than Shiro can say for any of the other Paladins.

He’s pretty sure they are just waiting for Keith to recover to start really pushing Shiro to do something about his very obvious pining for his best friend. It’s honestly a miracle that Keith hasn’t noticed yet.

Shiro palms the lock scanner and the doors slide open. A chirp from his comm promises food for them both in a couple hours and he sets it to silent as he toes out of his shoes and heads for the bedroom.

He cracks the door open carefully, not wanting to make too much noise if Keith is still asleep. He’s met with a low whine that sends his heart into overdrive as all of the possible things that could have gone wrong for Keith in the last hour race through his head. Today is supposed to be  _ good _ , not full of minor disasters and inconveniences and Keith in pain.

Shiro rushes in, eyes adjusting slowly to the dark. Keith is curled up in a ball in the corner of the bed, his back to the wall. The hippo Shiro gave him is pinned against his chest in a death grip. “Keith?” he says, leaning over the bed.

He can hear a low rumble as he gets closer and pulls back on instinct, registering it as a growl.

Keith cracks an eye open. “Sh’ro?”

“Hey buddy,” Shiro says carefully. “Sorry I was gone longer than I planned. How are you feeling?”

Keith swallows hard. “Hurts,” he admits.

Shiro digs in his pocket for the three bottles of pills he’d brought back with him. One of them is pain medication. He squints at the labels in the semi-dark before giving up and reaching for his phone to use as a light. “I got your meds,” he says as he sorts through him. “Nurse said you can have the pain pills every four hours as needed. You’re not due for the other ones for another few hours since you were dosed at the hospital.”

He shakes two pills out into his palm and gets the untouched bottle of water off the nightstand, replacing it with the pill bottles. Shiro crawls onto the bed, getting close to Keith’s space again. That low rumble is still there, but now that he is expecting it, it doesn’t sound threatening.

It sounds like Keith is purring.

Shiro bites his lip and nudges Keith. “Hey, need you to sit up so you can take the pills.”

The sound stutters and stops as Keith uncurls himself. Shiro puts the water bottle down and helps Keith maneuver to a sitting position, leaning heavily against the headboard and Shiro’s side. He looks pale and drawn and the worst he has in a week.

Shiro presses the pills into Keith’s hand and then twists open the cap on the water and hands that to him too. Keith takes the pills and tries to hand the water back but Shiro’s not having it.

“Keep drinking,” he says, working his arm behind Keith and anchoring it with a grip on his hip. “You need to stay hydrated.”

“Not going to make me go back to the hospital, are you?” Keith asks after a few large gulps of water. He phrases it like a tease but there’s too much stress in his tone for it to land like he wants. “I can feel you worrying.”

Shiro lets out a long exhale, breath ruffling the top of Keith’s hair. “Not taking you back,” he promises. “Not unless things get worse. Prefer having you here where I can keep an eye on you without the nurses glaring at me.”

Keith huffs out a laugh that turns into a wince. He takes another sip of water to cover it and then offers it back to Shiro. The bottle of water is half gone, so Shiro lets Keith hand it back this time. He makes sure the cap is tight and then lays it next to him on the bed.

“Why do I feel so awful? Thought getting out was supposed to be a step forward,” Keith mumbles. 

“I think I missed when I was supposed to give you the first dose of pain meds because of how long I was out,” Shiro admits. “Hopefully you’ll get to feeling better once they kick in.”

“There goes my hope of not relying on pills,” Keith mutters. He turns his face into Shiro’s chest.

“Few more days and the pain pills will really be on an as-needed basis instead of all the time,” Shiro reassures him. “You’re going to be fine.”

He leans over, sending his new hand to get Keith’s datapad from the nightstand.

Keith snakes his arms around Shiro’s waist, not letting him get far. “Stay here with me?”

“Of course,” Shiro says, pulling Keith into him a little more. It feels right, holding Keith close like this. “We have a few hours before Hunk shows up with food. Just wanted the pad to check if the hospital sent written instructions for you.”

Keith curls into his side. It’s quiet for a minute or two and then the low rumbling kicks up. It starts out almost inaudible before building to a quiet purr that Shiro can feel vibrating through him.

“Didn’t know you could purr,” he says quietly, loathe to disturb the moment.

“Me neither,” Keith admits. The purring stops when he talks but starts back up as soon as he’s done vocalizing. He presses a hand to his chest to feel it better. “Alien traits showing up this far into my life is fucking weird.”

Shiro laughs, jostling them both.

“It started up while you were gone and things started hurting,” Keith says when Shiro quiets back down. “Makes me feel better, a little.”

Shiro rests his cheek against the crown of Keith’s head. “Cats purr when they’re scared or injured to calm themselves. I think it helps in healing, too. Maybe it’s the same for Galra who can purr.”

“Thought cats purred when they’re happy.”

“That too,” Shiro agrees. He wonders if now that Keith purrs in one extreme if he will in the other. He’s looking forward to finding out.

Keith hums, distinct from the purr that kicks up right after it. 

Shiro works his thumb up underneath the hem of Keith’s shirt to stroke across warm skin. He turns his head to press a kiss into his hair. Keith just nuzzles closer and Shiro’s heart feels ready to overflow with love.

They haven’t talked about anything yet, and Shiro wants to wait until Keith is feeling closer to full strength before starting that conversation. For now, though, having Keith cuddled up with him and literally purring, even under less than ideal circumstances, is more than enough.

Words can wait.

The vibrations of Keith’s purr reverberate through both of them until it quiets to halt as Keith falls back asleep. Shiro follows right after him without meaning to.

* * *

When Hunk shows up with the food Shiro had begged him for earlier, he finds the door to the Captain’s quarters unlocked. He walks in and sets the thermal bag full of food on the kitchen table before calling out quietly for Shiro, mindful of the fact that he’d mentioned Keith being wiped out earlier.

Poor dude had gotten the worst of the crash and the quintessence drain, Hunk thinks as he peeks into the living room. He’s glad Keith’s finally out of the hospital, even if he’s not up and around yet. He’s looking forward to inviting Keith to a Garrett family dinner when he’s feeling better. His parents want to meet him when he’s not in a hospital bed.

Hunk grabs his comm and messages Shiro, thinking maybe they’d ended up in Keith’s quarters since they last talked. He hits send and hears the ping of a received message behind the bedroom door that’s cracked open.

Now, Hunk appreciates privacy, he does. He’s not nearly as overtly nosey as Pidge at the very least. But the door’s not  _ closed _ , so peeking in is probably alright. He pushes it open slowly and freezes when he sees Shiro and Keith clinging to each other and very obviously asleep.

Hunk bites his lip. Keith looks about two steps above death warmed over but they’re still so adorable. He debates with himself for about two seconds before snapping a quick photo of them and stepping out of the room.

He makes sure everything is safely tucked away in the bag he brought and leaves the food on the table. He sends Shiro another message, this one with the picture attached, and leaves the Captain’s quarters.

* * *

Shiro wakes two hours later, groggy and warm and with an unfortunate crick in his neck. It takes a moment to identify that it's Keith draped over him and not a blanket, but his smile is absolutely sappy when he does.

Carefully, so as to not wake Keith, he fishes around next to him for his datapad. It’s blinking at him with several missed messages. He opens the ones from Hunk first.

**[Received 12:31]:** Just brought the food over. Where are you?

**[Received 12:35]: ** _ image attached _

**[Received 12:35]:** I’m just saying… you should probably actually tell him how you feel before round two of cuddling. Just a suggestion. Food is in the thermal bag on the table. Message me for heating instructions if you need them.

Shiro bites his lip and quickly saves the picture and sets it as his background. There’s really no coming back from this and he doesn’t want there to be. Hunk is absolutely right.

He takes a deep breath and shakes Keith gently. “Hey, time to wake up, ba-” he swallows down the second half of the word. Not yet. “Hunk brought food and it’s time for your other meds.”

It’s also time for Shiro to tell Keith how very much he loves him. In this case, waiting for the perfect opportunity, for them both to be hale and healthy and not embroiled in five million duties, is just wasting precious time.

Keith wakes slowly, blinking up at Shiro with those wide, violet eyes all trusting and full of emotion. Shiro’s words disappear under that sleepy gaze, but Keith’s always appreciated action anyways. 

He leans down and kisses Keith.

Turns out that, despite everything, it’s shaping up to be a rather joyous day after all.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/LionessNapping) and [tumblr](http://perfectlyrose.tumblr.com)!


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